Top 10 Tips for Shredding Body Fat for the Summer (Tip 9 of 10)
Sleeping and Fat Loss
To increase fat loss, it is important to get a good night’s sleep every night. Sleeping well stimulates growth hormone secretion (GH), which is a powerful fat loss hormone and regulates the body’s proportions of muscle and fat..
Conversely, sleep deprivation can lead to:
- reduced growth hormone levels
- reduced ability to metabolize carbohydrates
- high blood levels of glucose, leading to higher insulin levels, which leads to an increase in body fat accumulation
- reduced leptin levels, increasing hunger
- insulin resistance, increasing risk of developing diabetes
- increased blood pressure
- increased risk of heart disease , through other processes
Something else to consider is a recent study, which showed that a lack of sleep in older men, resulted in lower morning testosterone levels. Presumably the effect on younger men is less, but I am unaware of any studies of younger men. The effects of low testosterone (Hypogonadism) are: increased body fat, loss of body hair, decreased muscle mass and strength and many more symptoms.
Conclusion
Lack of sleep is going to mess up your fat loss efforts, negatively affect the planning of your daily diet and training routine and ultimately lead to you gaining fat and losing weight and wrecking your overall physique, not to mention messing up your hormones!!!
However, sleeping 8-9 hours per night and following the other top fat loss tips is going to help you achieve your long term goals for strength, fitness and appearance.
Come back tomorrow for Top Tip Number 10…
Regards,
Martin
